Arctic Melt Could Fuel Deep Freezes, Big Snows

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The winter weather that has socked parts of the Northern
Hemisphere in recent years has been extreme enough to spawn a new
vocabulary: "Snowpocalypse" and "snowmageddon" were invented to
describe the huge blizzards that dumped record-breaking snows on
the Midwest and Northeast in 2010.

Overall, the winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 saw the second and
third largest snow cover levels ever recorded in the Northern
Hemisphere. And this year extreme,
record-breaking cold has gripped Europe.

"We conclude that the recent decline of Arctic sea ice has played
a critical role in recent cold and snowy winters," researchers
wrote in a study published Feb. 27 in the online early edition of
the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using a combination of observational data and computer modeling,
researchers connected the autumn changes in Arctic sea ice and
the resulting changes in atmospheric conditions and increased
moisture levels to colder temperatures and increased snowfall
across North America, Europe and Asia.

Since the late 1970s, when the satellite records began, Arctic
sea ice cover has declined steeply. Some researchers have warned
that if current patterns continue, the Arctic could experience
nearly
ice-free summers within the next few decades.

A lack of sea ice can evidently alter atmospheric circulation
patterns by weakening westerly winds, increasing the amplitude of
the jet stream and increasing the amount of moisture in the
atmosphere, said Jiping Liu of Georgia Tech, lead author of the
paper.

"These pattern changes enhance blocking patterns that favor more
frequent movement of cold air masses to middle and lower
latitudes, leading to increased heavy snowfall in Europe, and the
Northeast and Midwest regions of the United States," Liu, a
senior research scientist at the university's School of Earth and
Atmospheric Sciences, said in a statement.

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